My grandmother was a good woman and I miss her very much! On February 15, 1993, she went to the doctor and learned that she had cancer in her large intestines. Surgery was scheduled to remove a part of her large intestine and chemotherapy was started shortly afterwards. After going through chemo for almost a year, having only two more treatments left, she told me that she could not take it anymore. She told me that the treatments made her food and water taste like metal.

She stopped the chemo treatments and several weeks later returned to the doctor to see what was going on. As a result of this visit, the doctor discovered that there was now cancer in her small intestines. Another surgery was scheduled, this time to remove part of her small intestines.

After this surgery, grandma had a hard time controlling her bowels and she really did not like to go out into public. It was around this time that my grandpa had to go to a nursing home since my grandma's failing health hindered her being able to care for him. Grandpa passed away on January 14, 1994, for reasons that I won't go into right now (that's a whole other story for another time).

Kerri and Grandma before Cancer

Again my grandmother returned to the doctor, this time learning that she had stomach cancer. This time the doctor informed us that there was nothing more he could do for her. After this grandma started getting worse and it seemed to be taking a toll on my father and his health in taking care of her. Seeing this, I quit my job and tried to help him as much as I could.

Being too much for us alone, we finally had to hire a nurse to help us care for her. My grandma did not like the hospice nurses that came by to give her baths, medicine, etc., so she had me do all these things for her until finally she got so bad off that I couldn't do it anymore! My grandma always said that I would make a great nurse. *S* She always wanted me to exercise her legs and brush her hair.

I loved my grandma with all my heart and my daughter did too. We were all very close. It was getting closer to the time for my grandma to go home to be with the Lord and the hospice nurses were telling us to prepare for all of this. My grandma would hang in there and the hospice nurses could not believe that she made it another week. 

Grandma & Grandpa before they got ill   They finally told us that we all needed to tell her that she could go on to be with the Lord. That is the best thing you can do for someone that is not going to be with you much longer. Grandma finally lost control of her legs and it slowly moved up her body until she just laid there and couldn't do anything.   A few days before grandma's death, her best friend Eva, came to visit and to help me take care of her. While we were sitting visiting in grandma's bedroom, Eva fell asleep. Eva was laying sideways across grandma's king-sized bed and grandma was laying in her hospital bed. I was sitting at the side of the hospital bed, looking at grandma as she lay there peacefully sleeping.     Around 3:00 a.m. while I sat in the chair gazing at grandma - tears fell down my cheeks. Looking over at Eva as she slept, I saw a little white light above her. The light was small but bright and was bouncing several feet above her. I looked back at my grandma to ensure she was still breathing and quickly glanced back, looking for the light but it was gone. Upon seeing the light, I surely thought that angels had come to take grandma home.   This is Grandmas bed with her hospital bed at the foot of her King Size bed and her room     With something else catching my eye from the corner of the room over by the lamp, I looked there and saw what appeared to be a beautiful woman. Though the woman was not familiar to me, I was not frightened by her. It was almost as if I could see through her, almost as if she was translucent. I could see she was wearing an elegant sheer white gown. Again, I thought that she must be here to take grandma home.   That was not the case, the woman moved slowly to the head of my grandma's bed directly across from me. She stood there for a couple of minutes, just looking at my grandmother and then disappeared. Thinking that I must have fallen asleep and was dreaming, I slapped my cheek to make sure I was awake but I had not fallen asleep! Several minutes passed and as I sat there watching grandma sleep another tear ran down my cheek!   A short time later, I felt another presence in the room as if someone had walked into the room. I could feel them standing behind me, looking over my shoulder. I must say that it felt very much to me that it was a male presence. Thinking it was my dad, I looked over my right shoulder and they left swiftly. I then looked quickly to my left, down the hallway and no one was there. I thought to myself, there was no way that my dad could have ran down the hallway that fast.   Continuing to sit watching grandma, I once again felt the presence enter the room. Quickly I looked over my right shoulder where he was standing and he left swiftly down the hall again. This happened about four more times throughout the night. Deciding to try and get some sleep, I checked grandma's pulse and then fell asleep.   The next morning, my dad came in to see grandma and she could barely talk. Still she asked dad if he could see the lady by the lamp. She also said something about being able to fly like a butterfly. To this day, whenever me and my daughter, Kerri Lynn, see a butterfly, we think of Grandma.     Later that day, dad and I were standing at grandma's bedside and suddenly, for some reason unbeknownst to me, I turned around and opened a drawer in grandma's dresser. Sitting in the drawer was a big picture of my Great Grandpa who had passed away in the very same house on February 20, 1983. Turning to my dad, I told him that grandpa had been here last night. Instantly upon seeing the picture, I knew that it was grandpa who was in the room with us those times during the night.       This is Grandmas, Father, My Great-Grandpa who also died in this house years before.     On Father's Day 1994, I was at the store and when I got home my boyfriend told me to call my dad. In my excitement in trying to show him the things I had gotten for my father, I ignored his message. As I was pulling things out of the bags to show him, he became more insistent that I call my father. I knew right then that grandma was on her way home to the Lord, losing it I began crying.   Kerri Lynn and me got in the car and drove to the house. Dad was sitting in the room with grandma and he had covered her with a sheet so Kerri Lynn would not get upset. The first thing Kerri Lynn did was to crawl up with grandma and after pulling the sheet from over her face began to stroke her hair and cheeks. We figured that she was comfortable doing this and her way of telling grandma goodbye. Kerri Lynn never shed a tear.     Kerri & Grandma after Cancer and loosing a bunch of weight        Later when they came to take grandma, I began to cry as they passed by me with her. Dad and I stood holding one another, crying. In the meantime, Kerri Lynn had disappeared to the huge magnolia tree in grandma's front yard. Grandma was constantly telling Kerri Lynn to get out of that tree before she broke a limb or an arm! Feeling that was where she needed to be at the time, for time to herself, I just left her be.   As the day progressed, we began making calls, notifying family and friends that grandma had finally gone home. After awhile, I decided it was time to get Kerri Lynn from the tree but upon going there, she was not to be found. Looking all around outside, we could not find her. Finally coming into the house, I found her fast asleep on grandma's king-sized bed on the same side that grandma always slept on!   When Kerri Lynn woke up later, she came into the living room with a funny look on her face but sat there very quietly. Needing to get home, we left and on the drive home, Kerri Lynn looked at me and said, "Mom, you may laugh at me or think I am crazy, but I need to tell you something."   She began telling me that she went into grandma's room to lay down and a few minutes later grandma was standing beside the bed. As she stood there, she told Kerri Lynn to move over because she was lying on her side of the bed. Kerri Lynn said she moved over and grandma laid down next to her on the bed. Grandma told Kerri Lynn that she loved her very much and that everything was going to be okay. Kerri Lynn said that they laid there talking for a couple of minutes and grandma told her several times that everything was going to be okay and how much she loved her.   Kerri Lynn then said grandma told her it was time for her to go and that she could now move back over to her side of the bed. Again, grandma told Kerri Lynn how much she loved her as she left the room. Kerri Lynn then fell fast asleep and I am sure it was a very peaceful sleep for her.   Kerri Lynn loved grandma so much. She does now cry for grandma, wants to see her again and can't wait to go home to be with her again. She even wanted to change her name to Grace Clara, grandma's name. *S*   UPDATE: I had a precious little girl in 2001 and her name is Gracie. Kerri also just had a baby Nov 2006 and named her Clara Grace.   Grandma gave me her Cadillac before passing away and you can see it parked in the background and Kerri standing by her grave.   The things I saw and experienced were in no way eerie or scary at all. The light, the vision of the woman and the appearance of great grandpa were very peaceful and comforting to me. All my life, I never believed that anything like this could or would happen to me. Now that it has I do believe and my faith in God and angels has been deepened.   There was a lady on the internet years ago that sent me the story of her Mother being in the hospital and how an Angel had come to comfort her. She said when she went looking for this nurse noone in the hospital knew who it was.   She also said that when she stumbled across this page, that she knew as soon as she saw my grandmas face, without a dought, that it was her that was the nurse/Angel that had comforted her at that time. I have lost her e-mail address, so if this is you, please e-mail me so I can link your store to this one. It was amazing.